1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a program updating apparatus for a radio base station and method as the same, which update a program of a radio base station used in a private wireless telephone using a private branch switching unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
New services such as a character communication and the like, are developed one after another, as a PHS (Personal Handy-phone System) service. Usually, an addition of a new service requires a change of a program for a radio base station (CS). Typically, the radio base station is installed at a place, such as a ceiling or the like, which is difficult for a hand to reach, by considering the characteristic of an electrical wave transmission. For this reason, once it is installed, it is difficult to carry out a program change work, such as a change of ROM and the like. So, several program download methods are proposed in order to update a program of a radio base station.
An example of a program download method to a conventional radio base station is disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 7-87543) (a first conventional technique). In this conventional method, in order to carry out a program download at a high speed, a high speed line is installed between the base stations, and a download program is transferred on this high speed line.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 10-40189) (a second conventional technique) discloses a method in which a host computer transfers a download program to a radio base station and then the radio base station sequentially transfers a program to a next radio base station.
The first conventional technique has a problem that when a new program to be downloaded is transferred in a master base station, it requires an external memory as well as a high speed line.
Also, the second conventional technique has the following problem. That is, it requires a host computer. Moreover, a radio base station carrying out the download sequentially downloads a program to a next radio base station. Thus, if there are a large number of radio base stations, a period corresponding to the number is needed.
The present invention is accomplished in view of the above mentioned problems. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a radio base station program download method which can easily update a program for many radio base stations in a short time without requiring a special facility.
The following techniques are disclosed.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 6-105352) discloses a download method to a base station in a mobile switch system, as follows. The mobile switch system containing a plurality of base stations, base station controllers, mobile switches, monitors and control terminals connected to the monitors is used to prepare interface converters in the monitors and the mobile switches for carrying out the relay processes between the control terminals and the base station controllers. Then, an interface switch is carried out in a lower layer. After completion of connection of the lower layer, the control terminal carries out a communication control in a layer. The preparation of the download between the control terminal and the base station controller is checked to then send out a download file from the control terminal.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 10-224286) discloses a method for updating a system file of a mobile communication system and the base stations thereof, as follows. At least one file transfer base station is prepared at each of blocks, each having a plurality of base stations. A system file is transmitted from a maintenance apparatus through a fixing network to each file transfer base station. The file transfer base station receiving the system file sequentially transfers the system file through the fixing network to the other base stations in each block.
Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-A-Heisei 243446) discloses a multi-base station download method, as follows. In a simple type portable telephone system of a multi-base station method, at a time of download, a higher rank apparatus reports a download instruction of a master base station and a slave base station to the master base station. The master base station reports a download start instruction to respective slave base stations. Accordingly, when the master base station and the respective slave base stations establish a download data link between the higher rank apparatus and them and then receive the download data and further validate a reception download data and thereby detect a normal reception, the slave base station reports a download result information to the master base station, and then the master base station reports the end of the downloads of the master base station and the slave base station to the higher rank apparatus. Thus, the downloads become possible in the master base station and the slave base station, respectively, individually and simultaneously.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the conventional program updating apparatus for a radio base station. An object of the present invention is to provide a program updating apparatus for a radio base station which can easily update a program for many radio base station in short time without requiring special facility.
In order to achieve an aspect of the present invention, a program updating apparatus for a radio base station includes a plurality of non-management radio base stations wherein each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations has a first program and a management radio base station storing a second program to which the first program is updated, and wherein the management radio base station transmits the second program to at least one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations such that the first program is updated to the second program, and the non-management radio base station having the second program, as a first master radio base station transmits the second program to another of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as a first slave radio base station which does not have the second program such that the first program is updated to the second program.
In this case, the first slave radio base station receiving the second program from the first master radio base station as a second master radio base station transmits the second program to another of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as a second slave radio base station which does not have the second program.
Also in this case, each of the first and second master radio base station has a master right, and the master right is propagated such that all of the plurality of non-management radio base stations undergoes the master radio base station
Further in this case, at a substantially same time when the first master radio base station transmits the second program to the first slave radio base station the first master radio base station as a second master radio base station transmits the second program to the first slave radio base station as a second slave radio base station
In order to achieve another aspect of the present invention, a program updating apparatus further includes a switching unit to which each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations and the management radio base station are connected, and wherein the switching unit has a management table and refers to the management table to connect each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations and the management radio base station and the management table has a first memory area in which an identification number data assigned to each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations is stored and a second memory area in which a data indicative of a state of each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations is stored, the state data indicating whether or not the non-management radio base station has the second program and whether or not the non-management radio base station is transmitting or receiving the second program, and the switching unit refers to the second memory area to retrieve the state data indicating that the non-management radio base station does not have the second program and the state data indicating that the non-management radio base station has the second program, and selects the master radio base station and the slave radio base station based on the retrieved result to connect the selected the master radio base station to the selected slave radio base station
In this case, an identification number data assigned to the management radio base station is further stored in the first memory area the state data of the management radio base station is further stored in the second memory area and the management table further has a third memory area in which a data is stored, the data being indicative of a communication destination when the second program should be transmitted.
Also in this case, each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations and the management radio base station have a substantially same circuit configuration other than a fact that the second program is stored in the management radio base station in advance.
Further in this case, each of the management radio base station and the plurality of non-management radio base stations further has a mode setting unit setting as a operation mode, any one of a management radio base station mode a master radio base station mode and a slave radio base station mode and wherein the program updating apparatus further has a switching unit to which the each non-management radio base station and the management radio base station are connected, and wherein the mode setting unit of the management radio base station sets to the management radio base station mode in advance to output a first data indicating that the management radio base station is in the management radio base station mode to the switching unit and the switching unit outputs a mode setting signal to designate the master radio base station and the slave radio base station in response to the first data, and the mode setting unit of each non-management radio base station sets to any one of the master radio base station mode and the slave radio base station mode based on the mode setting signal.
In this case, each of the management radio base station and the plurality of non-management radio base stations further has a mode setting unit setting as a operation mode, any one of a management radio base station mode a master radio base station mode and a slave radio base station mode and wherein the program updating apparatus further has a switching unit to which the each non-management radio base station and the management radio base station are connected, and wherein the management radio base station is connected to the switching unit at a predetermined position, the switching unit identifies the management radio base station based on the position, and the switching unit outputs a mode setting signal to designate the master radio base station and the slave radio base station in response to the first data, and the mode setting unit of each non-management radio base station sets to any one of the master radio base station mode and the slave radio base station mode based on the mode setting signal.
Also in this case, the management radio base station further has a report unit reporting that the management radio base station is transmitting the second program and that a transmission of the second program to all of the plurality of non-management radio base stations is completed.
In order to achieve still another aspect of the present invention, a program updating method of a radio base station, includes (a) providing a plurality of non-management radio base stations wherein each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations has a first program, (b) providing a management radio base station storing a second program to which the first program is updated, (c) setting any one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as an N-th (N is an integer equal to or more than 1) slave radio base station (d) transmitting the second program to the N-th slave radio base station from the management radio base station to update the first program of the N-th slave radio base station to the second program, (e) setting the N-th slave radio base station having the second program as an M-th (M is an integer equal to or more than 1) master radio base station, (f) setting any one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations which does not have the second program, as an (N+1)-th slave radio base station, and (g) transmitting the second program to the (N+1)-th slave radio base station from the M-th master radio base station to update the first program of the (N+1)-th slave radio base station to the second program.
In this case, a program updating method further includes (h) setting the (N+1)-th slave radio base station having the second program as an (M+1)-th master radio base station (i) setting any one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations which does not have the second program as an (N+2)-th slave radio base station and (j) transmitting the second program to the (N+2)-th slave radio base station from the (M+1)-th master radio base station to update the first program of the (N+2)-th slave radio base station to the second program.
Also in this case, a program updating method further includes (k) setting the (N+2)-th slave radio base station as the (N+1)-th slave radio base station and setting the (M+1)-th master radio base station as the M- th master radio base station to repeat the respective steps of (g) to (j) such that all of the plurality of non-management radio base stations have the second program.
Further in this case, a first flow including the steps of (c) and (d), a second flow including the steps of (e) to (g) and a third flow including the steps of (h) to (j) are performed in parallel to each other.
In this case, a program updating method further includes (L) assigning an identification number to each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations and the management radio base station and wherein the (c) step includes setting a non-management radio base station having a lowest identification number of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as the N-th slave radio base station and the (f) step includes setting a non-management radio base station having a lowest identification number of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as the (N+1)-th slave radio base station and the (i) step includes setting a non-management radio base station having a lowest identification number of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as the (N+2)-th slave radio base station
Also in this case, a program updating method further includes (M) providing a management table wherein the management table stores an identification number assigned to each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations and a data indicating whether or not each non-management radio base station has the second program, (N) referring to the management table to generate a referring result, (O) retrieving, based on the referring result, a non-management radio base station having a lowest identification number of the plurality of non-management radio base stations which have the second program, as the master radio base station (P) retrieving, based on the referring result, a non-management radio base station having a lowest identification number of the plurality of non-management radio base stations which do not have the second program, as the slave radio base station and (Q) transmitting the second program to the retrieved slave radio base station from the retrieved master radio base station to update the first program to the second program.
Further in this case, a program updating method further includes (R) reporting a completion of an operation of updating a program when all of the plurality of non-management radio base stations have the second program.
In order to achieve yet still another aspect of the present invention, a program updating method of a radio base station, includes (S) providing a plurality of radio base stations wherein each of the plurality of radio base stations has a first program, (T) providing a second program to which the first program is updated, (U) transmitting the second program to any one of the plurality of radio base stations to update the first program to the second program, and (V) transmitting the second program to one of the plurality of radio base stations which does not have the second program, from the radio base station having the second program, to update the first program to the second program.
In order to achieve another aspect of the present invention, a computer readable recording medium for recording a program for a process includes (a) providing a plurality of non-management radio base stations wherein each of the plurality of non-management radio base stations has a first program, (b) providing a management radio base station storing a second program to which the first program is updated, (c) setting any one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations as an N-th (N is an integer equal to or more than 1) slave radio base station (d) transmitting the second program to the N-th slave radio base station from the management radio base station to update the first program of the N-th slave radio base station to the second program, (e) setting the N-th slave radio base station having the second program as an M-th (M is an integer equal to or more than 1) master radio base station (f) setting any one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations which does not have the second program, as an (N+1)-th slave radio base station and (g) transmitting the second program to the (N+1)-th slave radio base station from the M-th master radio base station to update the first program of the (N+1)-th slave radio base station to the second program.
In this case, a computer readable recording medium further includes (h) setting the (N+1)-th slave radio base station having the second program as an (M+1)-th master radio base station (i) setting any one of the plurality of non-management radio base stations which does not have the second program as an (N+2)-th slave radio base station and (j) transmitting the second program to the (N+2)-th slave radio base station from the (M+1)-th master radio base station to update the first program of the (N+2)-th slave radio base station to the second program.
Also in this case, a computer readable recording medium further includes (k) setting the (N+2)-th slave radio base station as the (N+1)-th slave radio base station and setting the (M+1)-th master radio base station as the M-th master radio base station to repeat the respective steps of (g) to (j) such that all of the plurality of non-management radio base stations have the second program.